Nirmal SA, Gangurde SS, Dumbre PS, Pal SC, Mandal SC. Challenges and opportunities in the treatment of ulcerative colitis. World J Pharmacol 2015; 4(2): 219-226 [DOI: 10.5497/wjp.v4.i2.219]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Dr. Sunil Ashokrao Nirmal, Associate Professor, Head, Department of Pharmacognosy, Pravara Rural College of Pharmacy, Loni, Tal- Rahata, Dist-Ahmednagar, Maharashtra 413736, India. nirmalsunil@rediffmail.com
Research Domain of This Article
Gastroenterology & Hepatology
Article-Type of This Article
Minireviews
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Sunil Ashokrao Nirmal, Department of Pharmacognosy, Pravara Rural College of Pharmacy, Loni, Maharashtra 413736, India
Sunil Shivaji Gangurde, Biotechnology Centre, Post Graduate Institute, Dr. PDKV, Maharashtra 413736, India
Pratiksha Shankar Dumbre, Sarswati Vidyabhavan College of Pharmacy, Mumbai, Maharashtra 413736, India
Subodh Chandra Pal, Department of Pharmacognosy, NDMVP’s College of Pharmacy, Nasik, Maharashtra 413736, India
Subhash Chandra Mandal, Pharmacognosy and Phytotherapy Research Laboratory, Division of Pharmacognosy, Department of Pharmaceutical Technology, Jadavpur University, Kolkata 700032, India
Author contributions: Nirmal SA collected data about ulcerative colitis; Gangurde SS contributed to manuscript preparation; Dumbre PS contributed to manuscript preparation and editing data; Pal SC collected data about various plants used for the treatment of ulcerative colitis; Mandal SC collected data about various plants used for the treatment of ulcerative colitis.
Conflict-of-interest: All the authors do not have any conflict of interest.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Dr. Sunil Ashokrao Nirmal, Associate Professor, Head, Department of Pharmacognosy, Pravara Rural College of Pharmacy, Loni, Tal- Rahata, Dist-Ahmednagar, Maharashtra 413736, India. nirmalsunil@rediffmail.com
Telephone: +91-97-66126772 Fax: +91-24-22273528
Received: November 28, 2014 Peer-review started: November 29, 2014 First decision: January 8, 2015 Revised: January 26, 2015 Accepted: April 8, 2015 Article in press: April 9, 2015 Published online: June 9, 2015
Abstract
Ulcerative colitis (UC) is an inflammatory destructive disease of the large intestine occurred usually in the rectum and lower part of the colon as well as the entire colon. Drug therapy is not the only choice for UC treatment and medical management should be as a comprehensive whole. Many synthetic drugs are available for the treatment of UC like 5-aminosalicylic acid, oral or systemic corticosteroids, immunomodulator, etc. but these drugs are associated with many serious side effects after long term use or have certain disadvantage or not suitable for the use in some patients. In short synthetic drugs have many disadvantages and for this reason effective and safe alternative drug treatment for the UC is the challenge. Herbal drugs are found to be very promising results of the treatment of UC and enzymatic level. Researchers explored many herbal drugs for the treatment and even many more may found effective in the treatment of UC. At this point we feel herbal medicine is the better alternative for the treatment of UC.
Core tip: Ulcerative colitis (UC) is one of the diseases of gastro intestinal tract having many serious complications. Many synthetic drugs are available for the treatment of UC but they have many serious side effects after long term use. This review presents potential of traditional/herbal drugs in the treatment of ulcerative colitis. Herbal drugs have great potential with safety which could be better alternative to synthetic drugs.
